Do you care about where your money goes? Of course you do, that's why you create a budget. You track, either on paper or in an app, to make sure the money that you earn is spent according to all the buckets you pre-assigned.
Let me ask another question - is money more important than time?
Most would argue that the answer is no. You might've heard that you can get more money, but you can't get more time. The time you have is all you get - and the scariest part is that we don't know how much that amount is.
So, why do you track your money but not your time?
I discovered Toggl recently and started using it while I was at work because I was interested in tracking how I spent my time - how much time is used checking email, how much BS-ing with coworkers, how much time I'm spending on each of my projects, and the scariest - how much time I spend on social media.
Then I thought, why do I care more about how I spend my time at work and not about my time outside of work, which is probably the more important portion. So I started tracking all my time - how much time at the gym? How much time in the car taking kids to activities? How much time doing dishes? How much time sleeping?
There are some challenges to doing this -
- It takes effort and time to track.
- It's hard to be honest , sometimes.
- It's hard to single-task, especially with personal tasks.
- It's hard to be honest , sometimes.
- It's hard to single-task, especially with personal tasks.
But, even with those challenges, I think this is beneficial and worth it. Primarily because it makes me a little more accountable - even if its just between myself and Toggl. I'm usually thinking of how I can spend my time more productively.
It does, somewhat, force you to single-task. Do the dishes, then check Facebook and Twitter, then sweep the floor, then read your e-mail. They're all separate activities and you're, in theory, more efficient doing them separately, one at a time.
Also, knowledge is (not) power - just knowing where your time goes is not enough - take action. Make changes. Besides the natural changes I make just because I'm trying to be more productive, I can also see where it would be beneficial to intentionally spend less time here and more time over there.
I guess the point I want to make is that your time is probably your most valuable asset, and Toggl has been useful tool for me, personally, in managing that asset.